Goat Meat! Monterrey Log 4

Our good friend, Jose Pacheco, told us before we left that if we are going to be in Monterrey we must try some goat meat. They are famous for that!
Gary and I had a date last night and went to a restaurant called The King of the Baby Goat.

It was a beautiful restaurant! I will probably load those pictures along with many others on webshots in due time. The baby goat meat is delicious.
We are really throwing our money around here! :?)

Italian Eating in Monterrey Log 3

WEll, I had another dinner with "Gary's Gang"

Here we are waiting to get started eating. On the left is Tom, who inspects towers all over the US. At the head of the table is Juan, from Spain, has lived here for 6 months as an engineer for the company here, Ravi, from India but Caifornia most of his life, an engineer overseeing this project, and My Gary, the Project Manager.
We added another man to our group! This is the man who cooked up our meal! He is from Italy and if I got the story right, he has been a chef at some the more elite restaurants in Monterrey. He decided he wanted his own little restaurant.
We have been served! Some of it anyway.
I think this was my favorite! This is a tuna salad. I am not sure, but I think the tuna was marinated in something that sort of pickled it.

A vegetable medley that was oh sooo good!
The green pasta at the top was outstanding...and the lasagna was the best I have ever had.
I did not get a picture of the pizza. It was not like any pizza I have ever had. The desert was a cooked pear in a very special red syrup.

An amazing meal to be had for a hole in the wall. What we got last night is not a part of the menu...he just made some of his specailties just for us! He sat with us to see what we thought of them!

I feel I have been spoiled!!!!! :?)

Monterry Log 2

Last night we had a new host for our dinner. He is from Spain. He has worked and lived in many parts of the world! Our friend from India was with us. I thought the waiter was getting more than the two of us in the picture! But what I was really after was the fish we had for dinner!

That baby is actually standing up on the plate!!!!! It is a red snapper. I would say it was one of the better meals I have ever had! So, if you are ever in Monterrey go to the fish restaurant called "Los Arcos". The service was out of this world! We had three guys by our table constantly aware of our needs!

Our adventure for the night was getting stopped by the police. The driver was from Spain, front seat passenger, born in India but is an American Citizen, back seat two men born in USA (one came without his passport...not Gary!) and me, born in Guatemala, but a US citizen!

I grew up in Latin America so I know about the stopping and then asking for bribes. However, I thought those bribes ran $25 to $50.

WHATEVER!

The breathalyzer test our driver got only consisted of the fact that when the window was rolled down the alcohol could be smelled. Oh yes, our driver had been drinking! Everyone else seemed comfortable with the amount he had had...but you know me...I was praying!!!!!

Two of the other men had topped off their dinner with a very unusual and strong tequila! The fumes at the table were new to me!!!!!!

Our driver was going to jail unless he paid his bribe! $800 dollars!!! No folks, not pesos....but dollars!!!!!!! Among the five of us we came up with $300 and that was acceptable!

Fortunately, we did not have to all show our passports! The one guy without his has it in process right now but needed to get down here and took the chance. Yep, that boy is being covered by my prayers these days!!!!

Monterry Log 1

the first thing I want to say here is that I am posting this on my blogspot(I will copy and paste it to the other blogs) All the instructions on here are in Spanish!!!!! How fun!
I don't know that I will do this every day while I am here, but I was out for a walk this morning for a little over an hour and a half and the day is getting hot, so my air-conditioned room feels wonderful!
Last night we had dinner with two of Gary's counterparts. One is an engineer who retired from his company in California some time back and is so good at what he does he gets pulled back into jobs...but only the ones he wants to take! He is originally from India. He is very professional, a very gentle man, and on the quiet side. The other man is one who is out at the construction site of the electrical towers. I could tell he is someone who is excellent at his job. To put it in his words, he is a "genuine good ole American Redneck!" He has a very loud voice and a lot of "soap boxes" on his agenda!
As you can imagine, the conversation was quite an interesting one! I came away with a deep admiration for my Gary. He is so good to make anyone comfortable. I believe both men came away "blessed" by Gary!
I was walking in the park this morning. The city has just finished up a week long celebration of their independence day. It was amazing to see the cleanup jobs going on today. All the fountains were turned off because they were being cleaned. The men were scrubbing all the ironworks in the fountains. The tiled floors on the outside of the buildings were being scrubbed by ladies with mops. The windows of the tall buildings were being scrubbed by men in swings. This appears to be a very clean city!
One thing that touched me today was the fact that in the park I found a woman sitting on a bench reading her Bible! Later, as I was walking through the shopping area I found a shoe shine man....reading his Bible!!!!!!!
Why did this excite me?!?! When we lived in Coban, Guatemala my dad would have his shoes shined in the city park. While he got his shoes shined he would read the Bible to the man. In due time this man came to know the Lord, and years later he was seen to be shining shoes....and reading the Bible to his clients!
Amazing, in less than an hour's time in two different parts of the area people were into the Word! Monterrey must be in good hands!!!!!

About Jeremy's Art

This was on Jeremy's pastor's blog

Art by Jeremy Collins
A couple of folks have mentioned the art on my banner. This is an original piece created by Jeremy Collins for the cover of my forthcoming book, "Intuitive Leadership: Embracing a Paradigm of Narrative, Metaphor, and Chaos."



When I was shown the different possible covers proposed for my book, none seemed to really convey its spirit. At the time, Jeremy had a show hanging in the Jacob's Well gallery. Jeremy is an amazing artist. Looking at his work I saw a few pieces that I thought captured visually the spirit of what I am trying to communicate. So, I suggested them to the art director. She liked Jeremy's work but didn't think any of the pieces I was suggesting worked either.

I thought that that was the end of it. I was thrilled when I learned that they had commissioned Jeremy to create an original piece. It couldn't have turned out more perfectly than it did. Take a few minutes and go browse Jeremy's website.

I'm In Love With God, God's In Love With Me

Misty Edwards

Mother-In-Law

I hope this does not come across as bragging for that is not the intent! I am just sharing some thoughts.

I received a call last night from one of my daughters-in-law. The call was a thank-you call...thanking me for being such a good mother-in-law.

That is a very nice kind of call to get!

We talked about how so many women seem to be jealous of the woman their sons have picked as a life companion. I was asking the Lord this morning why I have not experienced that feeling of jealousy.

There are many answers to that!!!!!!

• One who lives a Spirit filled life is not jealous
• When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another. Galatians 5:19-24
• Decisions made as a child make life easier or harder as an adult! When I was a child I had to share my pastor parents with many others. I could have been jealous but I chose to be proud of who my parents are and share them willingly. In fact when co-teens would share about how "horrible" their parents were I would offer them to come to my house and experience the love my parents would offer them!!!!!! I feel the same way about sharing my boys! They have a lot of love and fun to offer others!
• Another thought I have is that my daughters-in-law did not take away my boys....my boys provided me with two very amazing and wonderful daughters!!!!!!!!
• :?)
  

Fam

I took pictures off of other people's blogs! Here is our Sandy in worship at a ladies conference in San Diego.
I took this one from Talia's My Space.

I am missing the boys and praying for them as they are traveling in Norway this week .

The Word

The Word
I tend to like going to different versions of the Bible. It seems to make the Word come alive for me. This probably comes from the fact that as a child we came to family devotion time with different versions, including Spanish! We would then compare how it was translated and talk about which translation seemed clearer on that particular section. Today I read in Ephesians in The Message. I loved the way it reads in the first chapter....just had to post it!!!!!! Ephesians 1:3-23

Date September 6, 2007
How blessed is God! And what a blessing He is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in Him. Long before He laid down earth's foundations, He had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of His Love, to be made whole and holy by His love. Long, long ago He decided to adopt us into His family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure He took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of His lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, His blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people-free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans He took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in Him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth. It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, He had His eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose He is working out in everything and everyone.
It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free-signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.
That's why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the Christians, I couldn't stop thanking God for you-every time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask-ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory-to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing Him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is He is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life He has for Christians, oh, the utter extravagance of His work in us who trust Him-endless energy, boundless strength!
All this energy issues from Christ: God raised Him from death and set Him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from His rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ's body, in which He speaks and acts, by which He fills everything with His presence

Challenges

Not too long ago Jonathan put out a challenge on his blog for a workout. At a family picnic Labor Day one of his aunts commented about Jonathan's extreme challenges reminding us of one he sent out back in 2005. I decided I would post his old challenge on here. It definitely changed the way I read the Word. No longer am I satisfied with a one or two chapter a day way of doing it!!!!! I will confess, I have not done the OT in three months....but I have done the NT in a month several times since he put out this challenge. So, I put the challenge out to the rest of you!!!! Tell me what you think!





Hey guys, > > I heard a sermon on a CD recently that has challenged me to a new >idea for reading scripture that I'm going to try out this month. If >you read ten chapters a day, six days of the week, you will complete >the New Testament in one month. It didn't talk about this, but also >if you do the same with the Old Tesament, skipping psalms, you can >complete it in 3 months. I am attempting to do both, ten in each >everyday for the next three months. I am emailing you to see if you >would join me in at least the NT part. Doing both ends out taking >quite a chunk of your morning. If you don't have a job, don't have >any friends, and don't have anything to do except train, eat, and >rest then I'd ask you to join me with the OT as well. > I have yet to find any type of consistent community up here to >be accountable to, to feel a part of, etc. It would be great to >have friends back home joining me in this. But don't do it for me, >or you'll end up hating me every morning. If you are already in the >middle of something fruitful, by all means don't stop. But if >you're struggling to be in the Word, or aren't in it at all, this is >a great game plan and a great time to start it. > Please reply and tell me whether you can/can't, will/won't. I >know it is a little late notice to start for february, but who >cares. Finish march 2nd. I sent this to people I'm close to that I >thought might actually do it. If you want to send this to more >friends/family, go ahead. Maybe it will spread and the whole >country will be reading the Bible :) -Jonathan